WORKING CLASS

HAWAI'I IS BECOMING TOO EXPENSIVE FOR US

What has happened to Hawai'i? Local people moving out of this state because they can't afford to live here. Young families have to live with family because homes are unreachable for the working class. Homeless families are living on the beaches because they can't afford rent.

All of these things are happening right now. And yet new subdivisions are targeted toward foreign investors and people from the Mainland.

Politicians talk about how great Hawai'i's economy is, how we have the lowest unemployment. Maybe the economy is great for them (politicians and the wealthy), but the working class is struggling to stay above water. The unemployment rate is low because people must hold at least two jobs each to feed their families.

If nothing is done about the problems affecting Hawai'i's people, eventually the only people living in Hawai'i will be the rich foreigners and Mainlanders, and of course the politicians.

I'm still waiting for Gov. Lingle and Mayor Hannemann to take action for Hawai'i's people. Stop talking and start doing before our Islands turn into a giant resort for the wealthy.

DEVELOPMENT

SANDY BEACH BATTLE APPLIES TO TURTLE BAY

To understand why Rep. Michael Magaoay's call (Advertiser, April 2) for a re-examination of the Turtle Bay expansion project is so sensible, just reflect on the struggle over development near Sandy Beach.

In early 1987, the City Council was considering a special management area permit to allow a luxury housing development on an elevated plateau across the highway from Sandy Beach.

An unprecedented array of community interests sprang up to oppose the permit. Tour operators, visitor industry labor unions, artists, environmental organizations and community leaders and ordinary citizens of all stripes urged the City Council to slow down and consider what was at stake.

They asked the council to take into account the city's own study of O'ahu's scenic coastal resources, then only months away from completion.

But the community appeal for common sense didn't prevail. Instead, five council members rammed the permit through.

Their failure to listen to the community resulted in a history-making conflict and political showdown involving leading politicians, the Hawai'i Supreme Court, Bishop Estate, the Legislature, neighborhood boards, community groups of all stripes and litigation that went unresolved for 15 years.

The City Council has an opportunity to make a better decision at Turtle Bay.

It seems only rational that the permit given 20 years ago for Turtle Bay expansion should be fully re-examined in light of today's environmental, economic, social and cultural realities and current projections of future needs.

Hopefully, a majority of the council will see it that way.

HOMELESS

CLOSING PARK CORRECT

I completely support the difficult decision to close Ala Moana Beach Park and relocate 200-plus homeless.

While the plight of the homeless all over the world causes me concern and breaks my heart, the safety and beauty of Ala Moana should not be compromised for a couple of hundred individuals. I would suggest our churches, synagogues and other religious organizations step up to the plate and show some aloha.

HOMELESS

CHURCHES SHOULD PICK UP THE BURDEN

Am I the only one getting tired of all the finger-pointing going on as to what to do with the homeless in Hawai'i?

The church leaders especially have been awfully silent, hoping the problem will just go away.

Here is a novel and challenging way to temporarily house the homeless: Open up the churches at night, at least to families with children.

Most churches have the basic utilities to allow people to sleep overnight. Those using the facilities overnight would be required to keep them clean. Church members could volunteer to help.

But I doubt if it will work. I can hear the complaints from churchgoers already: "Not 'my' problem and certainly not in 'my' church."

Quoting the book and practicing its contents are two entirely different things, aren't they?

GET A JOB

HOMELESS SHOULD GET ON WITH THEIR LIVES

Here we go again, all bleeding hearts crying for homeless people. Sure, we need to sympathize with the homeless people. But with unemployment so low, why can't these people work like everyone else? Surely they can do some small jobs, starting with cleaning the park itself.

I am sure those with some mental illness can do some menial job. Heck, they do something if they are institutionalized instead of just sitting around the whole day. If immigrants can work, why can't these homeless people work? Just look at the area under the airport viaduct and the Wai'anae Coast. These beaches and bathrooms are filthy.

When will the Wai'anae Coast get cleaned up as well? I would like to visit the beaches, but I'm afraid to because of the homeless people, who are not very happy when you play near their tents.

I pay taxes and I expect to visit and use clean park beaches and bathrooms. We are deporting hard-working immigrants but cry over people who choose not to work. Get on with it!

MIDDLE CLASS

MINIMUM U.S. TAX IS MAXIMUM PAIN FOR US

It's tax season, and many middle-class Americans are painfully discovering the alternative minimum tax. If you haven't heard about it, you will.

AMT was enacted in 1969 to ensure the wealthy couldn't abuse tax loopholes. Over the years, Congress left the AMT largely alone. Today, middle-income Americans are consequently discovering they have to pay the AMT not because they are making more money, but because of inflation and the way AMT is structured.

AMT forces people to calculate their tax twice under the traditional tax system and the parallel AMT system. The higher of the two taxes is owed. This year, the trigger incomes for AMT are $58,000 for married taxpayers and $40,250 for singles. About 5.5 million taxpayers will owe an average of $2,770 in additional taxes to pay the AMT.

Next year, this number could rise to 19 million. By 2010, the U.S. Treasury projects 40 million middle-income families will be hit. Not exactly the kind of tax relief President Bush promised in his campaigns.

I believe families deserve to be at the center of American tax policy. Tax reform should be about restoring fair taxes on wealth while reducing the tax burden on families. The fair solution would be to repeal or let Bush's tax cuts expire while phasing in corrective adjustments to the AMT. If other tax cuts, but not AMT relief, are made permanent, fixing the AMT becomes even more expensive.

POLLUTION

AIRPORT SMOKING JUST SMALL PART OF PROBLEM

Recent letters to the editor decrying smoking (outdoor smoking, no less) at our airports strike me as misdirected.

The writers had just gotten off airplanes. Airplanes that leave contrails across the sky. Contrails that deposit pollution in the clouds and contribute to global warming.

Once they arrive at the airport, passengers step out of baggage claim and stand near a huge waiting line of idling automobile engines. The cars there to pick up the arriving passengers leave behind more pollution than even a horde of smokers could hope to contribute to the already-fouled air.

When our planet is destroyed as a result of our devotion to cars and planes, will we be proud that before the end of our civilization, at least we bludgeoned the smokers into submission?

CHIEF NAKAMURA

A MAN FOR ALL REASONS

For all the young boys and girls who say "I want to be a police officer when I grow up," Chief Michael Nakamura would be a police officer anyone could aspire to be like. He was a decent, honest, caring man, and he will be missed greatly by his family, friends and the entire community.

CAN THE STATE MANAGE?

DISASTER PREPARATION IS CRUCIAL

April 1 was the 60th anniversary of Hawai'i's worst historical tsunami disaster. What have we learned and accomplished since then?

We now have a warning system that helps us in the Pacific Ocean avoid such terrible loss of life. But we never got around to helping the rest of the world set up a warning system. So many tens of thousands of good people died needlessly on Dec. 26, 2004, in the Indian Ocean tsunami. And many more of us are physically and mentally scarred from the horror we experienced that day.

In Hawai'i, we have failed to educate residents and tourists about tsunami waves. So in 1960, more than 50 people were killed, even though the warning system worked perfectly.

Tsunamis are the No. 1 killer of all forms of natural disaster in Hawai'i. But since the 2004 tsunami, the state Legislature has failed to fund a number of bills that would have improved tsunami education and mitigation programs in the state.

And now more lives have been lost on Kaua'i — maybe partly because the state failed to live up to its legal responsibility of protecting the safety of the population from man-made disasters.

These issues are related. In fact, efforts for Tsunami Awareness Month this April have been put on hold because there are not enough Civil Defense staff to deal with the weather-related problems and their other responsibilities.

What happens when a bigger disaster happens — or what if a tsunami strikes tomorrow while civil defense is preoccupied with flood relief? Can the state handle two disasters at once?

Funding for natural disaster preparation or inspections of dams, buildings and other structures and man-made threats that can kill innocent citizens is not sexy. And it may never be needed during the short career spans of politicians. But these are some of the fundamental roles of government — things that citizens cannot do for themselves.

We are long overdue for another destructive tsunami in Hawai'i. Remind your representatives of this and demand that they take action.

But there are other responsibilities that fall on the population at large. You should know the signs of an impending tsunami (a violent earthquake, water leaving the coastline). Check out the Web sites of the Pacific Tsunami Museum (www.tsunami.org) or State Civil Defense (www.scd.hawaii.gov) for more information.

You should know that there can be multiple waves and that the first is not often the biggest. You should have evacuation and communication plans. You should have supplies to nourish you and your family for days.

You can't count on the government reaching you, maybe for days. You should know how to swim. You should know as much first aid as possible and have plenty of supplies. You should not clog the roads or phone lines if you are not in a low-lying area.

GOOD POLICY

RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS BILL IS WISE GOVERNANCE

House Bill 3118, the proposed Responsible Business Corporation Act sponsored by Rep. Marcus Oshiro, represents some of the most visionary and responsible public policy currently seen anywhere in the United States.

The act would create an alternative, voluntary corporate form that would integrate the interests of stakeholders and the public into the very structure and duties of the company's directors and officers.

Current corporate law only requires directors and officers to act in the best interests of the corporation, which largely is interpreted as maximizing profit for shareholders and is most often measured in the short term.

Despite the fact that we live in an increasingly privatized and global landscape dominated by corporations, corporate decision-makers have no legal requirement and often no incentive given their duty to maximize profit, to consider the impact of their decisions on employees, the environment, public health and safety, human rights, the economy, or the local, state, national and world communities.

Although we may think that corporations already should be responsible corporate citizens, as Lowell Kalapa argues ("Responsible firms don't merit new prize," March 29), there are structural and legal reasons why too often corporations do not act "responsibly" toward their stakeholders and the public.

HB 3118 is in fact a modest measure that seeks to align the interests of business with its stakeholders and society by giving those companies that wish to consider the interests of more than just shareholders the freedom to do so.

The bill reflects a vision of society that would harness the positive contributions of business enterprise to support the public interests represented by government.

Offering incentives to companies voluntarily choosing to incorporate under the new Responsible Business Corporation Act creates a win-win scenario for all. This is simply good public policy.